Monday, November 3, 2008

A road trip and three calls to room service later....

My husband is here! I try not to talk too much about the Army, his deployment, and how much I miss him. I figure there are enough weepy wives with sadder stories than mine. We have it relatively easy. We can communicate all the time, send packages out each week, and breezed through these first few months. But I had no idea how much I have really missed him until I was in his arms today.

First off, the entire R&R schedule is screwed up. He is supposed to be home for two weeks. That's the only thing that remains the same. His flights changed. His layovers changed. And everything was so delayed I ended up driving to Atlanta yesterday and getting a room at the Westin so I could pick him up today. We need to be in Florida by tomorrow, and it was pointless for him to sit and wait for his flight to Charlottesville when I could grab him here and save him 8 hours of drive time.

Of course, I had no idea what flight he was on or when he was coming in. But I did some good Army wife digging and found a flight coming in from Germany this morning and figured it was the correct one. I was right. Sort of.

I got to the airport about half an hour after the flight was to have landed, allowing time for him to get off the plane and go through customs. But there was a group of other wives there waiting for the same flight, and it had never come in. It had disappeared from the flight board, and the USO had no information for us (very sweet USO people were just as impatient as we were). So a few hours later, I got the call that they were in. Customs took over an hour, and by the time he called back to say he'd cleared customs, I was ready to climb the walls.

The funniest part of my day was the nice USO guy who, everytime he saw a young PFC or SPC would ask, "Is that one yours?" And when Jere finally came up the escalator, the man said, "Welcome to Atlanta, Colonel," I yelled, "THAT ONE'S MINE!" The USO guy kind of blinked at me. I love getting that reaction.

I wish I could say we've been spending today having quality time with one another, but I'd be lying if I did. We've sat at our respective computers, ordered room service, napped, and watched a little football. I'm not feeling particularly well and he's completely worn out. Tomorrow we're headed to see my family down there and stop for the night on our way to the cruise port. Soon enough we'll be cruising! I think I picked a nice, low key cruise. He looks like he needs the rest.

Thank you to everyone who has kept me distracted the past few days. And thank you to everyone who is making this R&R stress free. Jere really wanted to take a cruise during his time home so he could unwind, and it wouldn't have been possible without my friends supporting me, helping me plan and pick out dresses, making lists so I could pack Jere's clothes without forgetting important things, and caring for Miss Ginger while we're gone. You all are my saving graces, and you know who you are.

Today's lesson: Patience is really overrated. When you've finally had enough waiting, it's quite often better to get in the car and be impatient in a new location. Preferably one with room service.